Trawl gear

ABSTRACT

994,651. Trawl gear. WHITE FISH AUTHORITY. Aug. 1, 1963 [Aug. 4, 1962], No. 30093/62. Heading A1A. In a trawl gear, a cable set for a trawl net comprises a pair of link wires 17 each linking a point 18 on a headline leg 13 to a point 19 on a ground rope 16 aft of each end 20 of the ground rope. During trawling the links are slack but during shooting and hauling the headline legs are advanced, by means described below, relative to the groundline legs 16 to tension the links 17 and also the headline legs 13 to prevent fouling thereof with the groundline legs 16. The means for advancing each headline leg 13 comprises an independent piece 27 attached at one end a haul ring 28 in the headline leg and at the other end to the warp 24 forward of the otter board 23. The headline leg 13 and the groundline leg 12 are joined at a towing point 26 and a Kelly&#39;s Eye 30 connects the towing point 26 to a backstrap 25 connected to the otter board 23. When the otter board 23 reaches the gallows and is secured thereto, the hauling tension is then applied to the independent piece 27 whereby the haul ring 28 advances relative to the towing point 26 and the Kelly&#39;s Eye then slides on the groundline leg 12. The point 26 has a stop for the Kelly&#39;s Eye 30. The link wire 17 is made in two parts 32, 33, Fig. 5, to enable the ground rope to be drawn up to the gunwale. When a ring 35 at the point 18 reaches a sheave mounted on the gallows a messenger wire is passed over a further sheave and connected to a flattened link 38 on the end of the lower part 33 of the link wire. The latter is pulled through a ring 36 on the upper part 32 of the link wire 17.

June 15, 1965 J. NICHOLLS 3,

TRAWL GEAR Filed Aug. 1, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR JOHN NICHOLLS ATTORNEYS J. NICHOLLS June 15, 1965 TRAWL GEAR 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 1, 1965 INVENTOR JOHN NICHOLLS BY fa wa Q Day/91 ATTORNEYS June 15, 1965 J. NICHOLLS 3,188,766

TRAWL GEAR Filed Aug. 1, 1963 s She ets-Sheet s 1 FIG. 7

INVENT OR JOHN NICHOLLS ATTORNEYS headline and groundline United States Patent 3,188,766 TRAWL GEAR John Nicholis, Wootton, Isle of Wight, England, assigner,

by mesne assignments, to White Fish Authority, London, England, a British statutory body of Lincolns Inn Chambers Filed Aug. 1, 1963, Ser. No. 299,296 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Aug. 4, 1962, 30,093/ 62 4 Claims. (Cl. 43-9) This invention relates to cable sets which in use are attached to a trawl net to form the bridle assembly by which the net is towed, for example, along the sea bed. The cable set provided by the invention achieves a substantial increase in the vertical mouth opening of the net, and also includes features which facilitate hauling and shooting of the trawl, in order to reduce the period of time required to unload a catch and thereafter reset the trawl.

The cable set, according to the present invention, comprises a pair of headline legs adapted to be attached to the ends of the headline of the trawl net, a pair .of groundline legs adapted to be respectively attached to the ends of the ground rope of the trawl net, a pair of link wires respectively adapted to link each headline leg to the ground rope, each link wire being attached at its upper end to its respective headline leg at a first point and at its lower end to a second point on said ground rope, there being a pair of second points on said groundrope, each second point being positioned aft of its nearest ground rope end, when the cable set is assembled and in use the arrangement is such that, during trawling, the link wires are slack but during shooting and hauling of said headline and groundline legs said link wires are tensioned by the moving of said headline legs forward relative to their respective groundline legs so that said headline legs are tensioned and thus prevented to a large extent from fouling their respective groundline legs.

A cable set or assembly constructed to operate in this way enables the satisfactory use of long headline and groundline legs, for example, of forty fathoms in length. This gives a consequential increase in the headline height obtainable during trawling, which in turn permits an increase in the vertical mouth opening of the net from the usual order of five to six feet to the order of sixteen feet, for example.

It is to be clearly understood that the invention includes both a setof cables adapted to be assembled in the way described, and also the assembled combination of cables and trawl net.

In preferred constructions, each pair of ends of the legs, remote from the headline and groundline attachment points and which are associated with the same side of the net are, or are adapted to be coupled to constitute in use towing points to which the trawling pull along the sea bed is applied. With this construction the headline legs at a predetermined point between the towing points and their headline attachments, are each provided with a haul attachment and these attachments are used when hauled to tension the link wires, by moving the headline legs forward relatively to the groundline legs, to apply the required load from the weight of the groundline bobbins to maintain the headline legs taut during hauling.

The preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of an example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a sectional elevation of a part of the trawl net assembly, the section being taken on the centre line of the trawl net.

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FIGURE 2 is a view of the otter board and the headline and groundline legs.

FIGURE 3 shows an enlarged view of details at A on FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 shows the same parts as in FIGURE 3 but in the position they assume at the commencement of hauling in the legs or just prior to shooting of the board.

FIGURE 5 shows an enlarged view of details contained in circle B on FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 6 shows the arrangement of the gear at the forward gallows when hang up of the net is in progress, hauling of the headline being completed and the ground rope is in the process of being banged up.

FIGURE 7 shows a half plan of a portion of the trawl net with the direction of travel vertically on the page.

This embodiment describes the operation of the trawl gear by the so called bang up system in which the ground rope is hauled into a shallow catenary, so that the ground rope bobbins can swing over the gunwale in the shooting and hauling of the trawl. The headline may or may not be hauled into a shallow catenary.

Referring to FIGURE 1, the headline of a trawl net is shown at 10, one of the headline ends is shown at 11. One ground leg 12 and one headline leg 13 are shown also. It will be appreciated that as one side of the net is being described various parts are duplicated for the other side of the gear that is not shown.

The trawl net is shown at 14 and the forward edge of the wing is shown at 15. Ground rope 16 is partly shown and a link wire 17 is connected to the headline 10 at a first point 18 and with the ground rope 16 at a second point 19. FIGURE 7 of the drawings shows how the link wire 17 is connected to a point spaced from the ends of the ground rope.

A Dan Leno bobbin 20 is shown connected in the ground rope 16 but the other rollers and bobbins of a typical ground rope have been omitted for clarity.

FIGURE 2 shows the otter board 23 and the towing warp 24. The backstrop 25 has a Kellys Eye 30, at the towing point 26, which is formed by a special stopper forming the junction of the headline leg 13 and the groundline leg 12. An independent piece 27 is connected at its forward end to a point just forward of the otter board 23. The other end of the independent piece 27 is attached to a ring in the headline leg 13; this ring will hereinafter be referred to as the haul attachment 28 and it i positioned at a predetermined point on the headline leg. The arrangement of the haul attachment is best seen in the enlarged view in FIGURE 3.

The independent piece 27 is provided with a swivel 29 adjacent to the haul attachment 28 and the backstrop 25 is provided with a Kellys Eye 30, which slides on the groundline leg.

In FIGURE 4 the load of the net is taken by the independent piece 27 through the haul attachment 28, the headline leg 13 and the groundline leg 12 are both taut during hauling or shooting of the headline and groundline legs.

In FIGURE 5 the area around the point 18 on the headline leg 13 is shown enlarged. The link wire 17 is shown in two parts, an upper first length 32 and a second length 33. The first length 32 is attached to a Kellys Eye 34 mounted on the headline leg 13. A headline ring 35 is formed in the headline leg 13 adjacent to the point 13 and the ring 35 acts as a stop to prevent the Kellys Eye 34 sliding aft. The lower end of the first length 32 of linkwire 17 is provided with a stop ring 36 through which the end of the second length 33 passes. Attached to the upper end of the second length 33 is a stop link 37 having a flattened link 38, the stop link 37 being too large to pass through the stop ring 36.

' groundline leg 12 of opposite lay cable.

46 at its end is shown attached to second length 33 of linkwire 17.

During trawling the trawl operates in the'usual manner and the present invention has the advantage that a greater headline height. is obtainablewiththe longer headline and groundline legs now made practicable due to the problem of fouling being largely overcome.

When hauling in the trawl both the warps 24 are hauled in until the otter boards 23 reach their respective gallows 41 andare secured thereto. The warps 24 are then slackenedand disengaged from the otter. boards and the hauling tension is then applied to the independent piece 27.. This has the effect of vmoving theheadlinei leg 13 forward relative to the :groundline leg 12 by a distance approximately equal to twice the distance between the towing point 26 and the hauling attachment 28. The result of the relative m'ovement'forward of the headline leg 13 to, the groundline leg 12 ,is that the linkwire-17 istensio'ned and. the headline leg 13 takes some of the load of the trawl, such that it is tautor substantially taut so that the chance'offouling of the headline leg 13 with the groundline'leg 12 is greatly reduced, if not eliminated altogether. The hauling in of the legs 12 and 13 can then proceed, the Kellys Eye '30 sliding on the groundline leg, until the first point 18 is adjacent to the sheave 40.

A messenger Wire 45 is passed over the top sheave 44 and 'its G link 46 'isiconnectedinto the-jflattenedlink 38.

As the messenger wire 45 is hauled in the second length 33 of linkwire 17 slides; through thestop'ring 36,- and i this continues until the ground rope -16 is ba n'ged up between the gallows, and then it may be'swungover the gunwale 43. When the ground rope is swung over the gunwale 43 the cod end and parts of the end beyond the wings are accessible on the ship for release of the catch.

During shooting of the trawl the headline leg '13 and the groundline leg 12 are both drawn out throughthe sheave 40 and they are both taut. This tautness greatly reduces .the chance of the headline leg 13 fouling the In certain circumstances, the legs '12 and 13 may be The present invention-using link wires 17 to prevent fouling of the headline and groundline legs may also be used equally well with a trawl, using the quarter rope system of operation.

Although this invention has been described with reference to a side trawler it may also be used with a stern trawler.

Although this invention has been described with referenceto a deep water trawl. it iszto be understood that its-scope is not limited thereto, but it may be applied to any suitable trawl with headline and groundline legs.

. I claim:

1. A trawl gear comprising:

a headline;

headlinelegs for attachment to the line; V

a ground rope; i V

groundline legs for attachment to the ends of the ground rope; and I 1 V p a link cable attached at a pointintermediate theends of each headline leg and extending directly to the ground rope and attached thereto;

the arrangenient'being that during trawling, the link cables are slack, while during shooting and hauling Y the cables are tensioned ,by forward movement of ends of the headthe headline legs relatively to the groundline legs with the result that the headline legs are tensioned i and restrained from fouling the groundline legs.

2. A trawl gear according to claim 1, in which a pair of towing points are provided, each towing point being .formed at thejunction of the forward end of a headline leg and the forward end of its respective groundline leg. '3. 'A trawl gear as claimed-in claim, 1,' in which a haul attachment isprovided in each headlin'e leg at a predetermined point,@sa'id point being determined such that when said headline. and groundline legs are being hauled in or shot the length alonga headline from the haul attachment to said first point plus the length 'of said link wire The distance between 'points' 18 measured along the curve of the' headline 10 is determined by the spacing ,7

headline ring 35 will depend uponthe ease of access'to the flattened link 38 when point 18 is at the sheave 40,

is substantially equal to the length from the respective second point on'the ground rope along the groundline leg to the haul attachment. 7

I 4. The trawl gear specified in claim 1 wherein each link cable comprises two parts .slidably connected to one another.

References Cited by the- Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1 1,601,893 10/26 Vigneron 439 7 FOREIGN PATENTS 7 9,106 7 1912 Great Britain.

ABRAHAM G; STONEfPr imary Examiner;

P. RAY CHAPPELL, Examiner. 

1. A TRAWL GEAR COMPRISING: A HEADLINE; HEADLINE LEGS FOR ATTACHMENT TO THE ENDS OF THE HEADLINE; A GROUND ROPE; GROUNDLINE LEGS FOR ATTACHMENT TO THE ENDS OF THE GROUND ROPE; AND A LINK CABLE ATTACHED AT A POINT INTERMEDIATE THE ENDS OF EACH HEADLINE LEG AND EXTENDING DIRECTLY TO THE GROUND ROPE AND ATTACHED THERETO; THE ARRANGEMENT BEING THAT DURING TRAWLING, THE LINK CABLES ARE SLACK, WHILE DURING SHOOTING SAID HAULING THE CABLES ARE TENSIONED BY FORWARD MOVEMENT OF THE HEADLINE LEGS RELATIVELY TO THE GROUNDLINE LEGS WITH THE RESULT THAT THE HEADLINE LEGS ARE TENSIONED AND RESTRAINED FROM FOULING THE GROUNDLINE LEGS. 